


In Sorrow and Anger

by robyn_bird



Series: how a girl becomes a wolf [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gold knows who he is but wishes he didn't, banter and bad advice, honorable mention Regina mills, season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 18:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16164320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robyn_bird/pseuds/robyn_bird
Summary: Tired of wasting time in Storybrooke, Mr. Gold decides to give Emma a little push in the form of a lecture. If she insisted on acting like a child, then he would treat her like one.





	In Sorrow and Anger

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from the saying "a countenance more in sorrow than in anger"

Emma is sitting in the booth in the corner. The paper open in front of her, she has a cup of cooling coffee in one hand, and a piece of toast smothered in jam in the other. She’s leaning forward, focused on the words and not where the toast is going. So she ends up with jam on her face, though she doesn’t particularly care at the moment. At the moment she was more interested in how these people found enough slander on her to publish a story, and whether she could sue them. 

“You’re worse than a toddler, Miss Swan.”

Emma looks up at the low lilt of an exasperated man. She’s looking at him like he’s interrupted the most important meal of her life. Emma doesn’t break eye contact as she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. 

“Do you need something?” She asks at length, ignoring how he made her feel like a child when he stared at her. Or how his eyes were an unnatural shade of gold that cut her like a knife. 

“Yes. A moment of your time if you’d be so willing.” Emma frowns, not inclined to give him that at all. She chews her lip as she thinks about it. Gold standing beside her table, awkward but determined, and letting her mull it over. 

“Alright. Step into my office,” she says with a drawl, extending her arm to motion toward the bench across from her. Gold looks less than impressed. 

“As much as I would like to advertise our business to the rest of the town, perhaps we should speak somewhere a little more private.” He grimaces at her, and she takes another (rather vicious) bite of toast. Emma nods to him in agreement as she shovels eggs into her mouth before she finishes chewing the toast. 

“Yup, okay, noted,” she says hardly after she’s swallowed. Drinking down the rest of the coffee, grabbing her paper and looking eager to leave now. Gold scowls faintly, but sees the cause of her urgency walking into the diner as he turns around to lead her out.

“Good morning, Mayor Mills, a beautiful day isn’t it?” He says to her with the only the barest hints of teasing. 

“Yes, it is. Miss Swan, you have jam on your face.”

“Sure do!” Emma agrees and pushes past her out of the diner, her anger making her shake but her common sense stopping her from making a scene. 

After a few moments Gold follows Emma out at a much more resigned pace. Emma looks antsy and angry and he thinks it looks very good on her. She holds her anger much better than he imagined she would for someone in her position. Or someone with her lineage. 

“So? You wanted to talk?” She asks, her voice slightly higher than normal and Gold rolls his eyes. 

“Yes, but not when you look ready to jump someone. Honestly, Miss Swan, the woman hardly spoke to you.”

“So you don’t read the paper?”

“I skim.” He shrugs, walking past her with the assumption that she will follow him. She does, and doesn’t seem to realize she’s doing it.

“Some way or another that woman found out all about me and had it published! Published! Isn’t that slander or libel or something? I could sue her couldn’t I?” Emma speaks quickly and it would not be out of place to see her pulling at her hair.

“I suppose you could, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” He regrets wanting to speak to her today, but he couldn’t hardly put it off any longer. When he was writing her name obsessively in the cave he didn’t quite imagine she would turn into this woman muttering angrily beside him. 

“Why not? I know people. Lawyers. They could-“

“Miss Swan, it may seem rude to ask but you would consider yourself a bright woman, wouldn’t you?” He stops walking down the street to turn to look to her, scowling slightly and mouth pursed into a thin line. 

“What?” 

“I see,” he sighs in disappointment and turns around to walk away from her again. Emma makes a squawking sound that’s half offended and half angry.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I think I have common sense if that’s what you’re asking! I’m not a math wizard but that shit is hard!” 

“Then do you believe it prudent to sue the current custodial guardian of your child?” He asks without breaking his stride, and Emma seems like she’s caught off guard by the question. He doesn’t like to think she hadn’t thought of her child but from what he’s seen he is not surprised that she hadn’t. “Regina Mills is a difficult person, she does what she pleases and damn the rest of us. That does not give you leeway to take a page out of her book, however. 

“Henry needs at least one parent that isn’t self-absorbed.” Gold scoffs, exhausted by these people now that he remembers them all. Now that he had places to be and things to do. He couldn’t stay here and hold their hands like they wanted, like he had been doing. He coddled them in the Enchanted Forest and that wouldn’t stand any more. Not when he was this close to finding Bae, not when his own son haunted his every thought. 

And if he had any chance of getting out of here and finding Bae then he had to make sure Emma took her head out of her ass and paid attention to her surroundings. That she didn’t stew on petty arguments or people. 

“Well what the hell am I supposed to do when she’s constantly attacking me? I can’t go two seconds without something else coming up. She’ll kill us both before she lets Henry go.”

“First, you need to lower your expectations. Regina is never going to let Henry go,” he sighs and opens the door to his shop, ushering her in and locking the door again just as quickly, “they will always be a packaged deal. Second, you need to stop stooping to her level. Getting back at her, or getting even isn’t going to make you look like the bigger person it just makes you look like an ass.” He raises an eyebrow at her, and she looks properly shamed. Being held accountable for her actions, then, is not something she has learned recently. “And you need to stop trying to be the boy’s friend. Granted, he doesn’t have many, but you are his mother. And if you want to be his mother then you need to act like it.” 

Emma looks dubious about this last piece of advice. Finally realizing she had followed him to his shop and asked his advice about something that she didn’t think he had any experience, or business, giving advice in. There was something about him though, that made her crave his approval and opinion. She wanted to know what he thought, she needed to know that he thought she was doing things right. 

She needed to leave. 

She needed Henry to be safe.

She needed Regina to fuck off.

Emma shakes her head and sighs, looking away from him toward some of the trinkets to try and clear her head. She focuses on the crystal unicorns, how they caught the dim lighting and spun in circles. Gold watches her curiously as she focuses on them, wondering if perhaps she remembered some part of them, or thought she did. Her fingers hover over them, and his eyes narrow, if she felt some pull then perhaps-

“I just want Henry to be happy and safe.” She says quietly, still looking at the unicorns.

“And that is noble, but you’re not going to get anywhere the way you are currently.” The mood has shifted, from frantic energy to something more calm and easy to handle.

“What’s all this advice costing me, anyway?” Emma looks at him skeptically, and he smiles. It’s not sinister, per say, but there is something about it that fills her with dread and unease. 

“I have not yet decided, but I assure you, Miss Swan, it will be substantial.”


End file.
